Report: Anti-Israel Hacking Group Hits Nuclear Watchdog Agency

WASHINGTON — For the second time in as many weeks, an anti-Israel hacking group has reportedly stolen “highly sensitive” nuclear data and satellite imagery from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The agency, the world’s top nuclear watchdog, was compromised by a group calling itself Parastoo, the Iranian word for a swallow, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

Last week, the Iranian group stole the personal information of as many as 200 agency scientists and officials, including an employee in the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Science.

The Energy Department oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Parastoo now claims to have stolen documents and personnel information from the nuclear agency’s internal “nuclear data section,” according to a statement by the group.

It also has obtained “highly sensitive information, Including Confidential ‘SafeGuard’ Documents, Satellite Images, Official letters, [and] Presentations,” the statement said.

The group also threatened to release the information unless the agency formally investigates Israel’s nuclear site, which some believe houses nuclear arms, the Beacon reports.

“We are demanding IAEA to start an INVESTIGATION into activities at Israel’s secret nuclear facilities,” the group wrote in the statement. “There are many PARASTOOs in the world, seeking for an investigation into Israel’s Human-Life threatening nuclear activities.”

The nuclear agency did not respond to a request for comment from the Beacon.